Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

March 20th, 2016 at 6:42pm

I am using an older Square Deal B machine I bought from a friend about 10 years ago, and the manual has a date of 1994, and have had great results while using it. My problem is when I pull the handle all the way to de-prime and then push the handle all the way up the shell plate does not rotate fully and does not line up with the next station. It is about 1/8 inch short of lining up where it should be and the result the primer cup does not come up in the center of the opening to seat the primer but hits on the bottom edge of the shell plate opening. When I give the shell plate a slight nudge clockwise with my free hand, I hear a click and it is lined up properly. Dillon told me to remove the index bolt from the back of he press and make sure it was well greased and replace the bolt with the handle completely down. I did that and it didn't do any good. More advice from Dillon was to loosen the bolt in the center of the shell plate because it probably was too tight. I did that and still no change. I tried pulling the handle down to rotate the shell plate WITHOUT the primer housing, slide and primer cup and the shell plate lined up fine. I made sure the primer slide adjustment was 1.410'' as called for in the manual. Then I tried installing the complete primer housing including the slide and primer cup and when I pulled the handle down the problem returned and the shell plate would not completely line up. The index assembly has been replaced but that has made no difference. I have had this problem for 3 weeks and have not been able to reload for that time. Hopefully someone can come up with a solution.

RE: Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

March 21st, 2016 at 11:39am

Has the machine had a good cleaning recently? Mine will start acting funny when it gets dirty below and around the shell plate.

have you cleaned the track that the primer slide roller runs on (#13689) the track is part of the shaft. and does the roller actually turn? I had one that didn't and slid up the track rather than roll up.

Is the primer slide and it's corresponding slot clean? Top and bottom of the slide is where the dirt can build up.

Are the white plastic wave bearings at end corner of the square shaft clean and not broken? They can be lubed

#13705 indexer pawl: does it show major wear where it contacts the shell plate? I had one what looked like it was almost cut through by a pair of side cutters.

RE: Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

RE: Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

November 22nd, 2017 at 7:37am

I just purchased an older DSDB. It was quite dirty so I took the entire press apart and cleaned it thoroughly. I followed Dillon’s instructions on how to lube her up and used white lithium grease. After it was reassembled I too found the shell plate to be off 1/8” and would not permit the primer arm to clear the shell plate hole. If I manipulated the shell plated by hand it would then rotate into proper alignment. This sounds like a common problem. Did you ever find a fix?

RE: Shell Plate Not Rotating Fully

November 22nd, 2017 at 9:13am

On an older machine, wear to the index lever is a possibility. In the back of the frame, about one inch below the mounting flange of the frame, is the indexing bolt, #13461. Remove this bolt and measure the diameter. We do have some slightly larger diameter bolts we can send you, otherwise we can send you a new index lever.
Newer machines have a set screw on the right side of the square shaft to stop the index lever from overtravelling. If your machine has this set screw, back it out 1/2 turn to 1 turn, to allow the index lever to push the shellplate over further.